BHUBANESWAR: While Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik fielded new faces in several Lok Sabha seats, candidates for which were announced on Wednesday, he reposed his trust on old hands of the party in the first list of candidates for 72 Assembly constituencies.
While candidates for 56 seats have been repeated, there are only 13 new faces in the first list announced by the chief minister. There are only two cases of swapping of seats while no minister or sitting MP has been dropped. Sources in the party stated candidates for non-controversial seats were announced in the first phase.
Seats which were swapped include Satyabadi, Bramhagiri, Bhandaripokhari and Bhadrak. While former minister Sanjay Dasburma has been fielded from Satyabadi, sitting MLA from the constituency Uma Samantray has been shifted to Bramhagiri. Similarly, sitting MLA from Bhandaripokhari Prafulla Samal has been given ticket from Bhadrak while Bhadrak MLA Sanjib Mallik has been asked to contest from Bhandaripokhari, said sources.
Sons of at least three veteran BJD leaders have also been nominated by the party. Sunil Mohanty, son of former speaker Maheswar Mohanty and Biplab Patro, son of another former speaker Surjya Narayan Patro have been given tickets from Puri and Digapahandi seats respectively. Similarly, Chinmayananda Srirup Deb, son of senior cabinet minister Usha Debi will replace her mother from Chikiti.
Besides, Arvind Mohapatra, son of another veteran leader and chief minister’s arch rival Bijay Mohapatra has been fielded from Patkura once represented by his father in the Assembly. Arvind had recently joined BJD at Naveen Niwas here in the presence of the chief minister.
The first list of candidates reveals no changes have been made in important areas such as chief minister’s home district Ganjam and politically sensitive coastal districts of Kendrapara, Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur. Even former minister Srikant Sahu who was dropped from the ministry in May, 2023 has been retained from Polasara.
However, candidate announcement has been kept on hold in several seats including Narla in Kalahandi district, Rairakhol in Sambalpur and Nimapara in Puri. While Narla Assembly seat is represented by Bhupinder Singh, Rohit Pujari and Samir Ranjan Das are sitting MLAs from Rairakhol and Nimapara. Both of them were dropped from the ministry by the chief minister.
Prominent leaders re-nominated to contest the Assembly elections are Susanth Singh from Bhatli, Dibya Shankar Mishra from Junagarh, Debi Prasad Mishra from Baramba, Arun Kumar Sahoo from Nayagarh and Badrinarayan Patra from Ghasipura. Other candidates include Raghunath Gamango from Gunupur, Anusaya Majhi from Rayagada, Debesh Acharya from Bargarh, Snehangini Churia from Atabira, Subhasini Jena from Basta, Debi Tripathy from Banki, Sauvik Biswal from Cuttack Choudhwar and Chandra Sarathi Behera from Cuttack Sadar.